Fingertips and Headaches
by kurohyacchan
Summary: Apparently, Gray had really warm fingers for an ice mage. \\ Oneshot. Slight Gray x Juvia.


**Title:** Fingertips and Headaches

**Summary:** Apparently, Gray had really warm fingers for an ice mage.

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Juvia groaned at her throbbing head for the nth time that day, the loud conversations in Fairy Tail's headquarters worsening her condition. Why was she still inside the building anyway? Ah, yes. Gajeel was reporting their small job to Mira – a day ago, the two of them (plus Pantherlily) had taken it from the request board as it looked simple and not really tiring: they were to watch over a relatively large group of children during a birthday party over a city to the north of Magnolia.

They started pretty well; however, all the loud noises (including excited screams, cheerful talking and Gajeel's complaints about the children) during the party incited a very strong headache for Juvia – her friends had to double their work while she tried to rest her ears and eyes. Eventually, though, she forced herself to work and by the end of the job, she could barely move without her head feeling like multiple sharp weapons were piercing it – or something like that.

"You shouldn't have forced yourself like that, you fuckin' idiot," snarled her dragon slayer friend in the train back to their city, worsening her headache. "I told'ja like fifty times to let me take care of the toddlers, but nah, you _had _to help, can't keep your ass resting, can you—"

"Gajeel-kun, Juvia would give you the whole reward if she ever let you work by yourself," she retorted, rolling her eyes. The lights outside the window made her feel lightly dizzy; Lily astutely kept quiet while his iron willed companion huffed in response.

"If you wanted the money, I'd split it anyway, woman! You literally _never _slack off, it wouldn't make a difference for me whether you rest or not—"

"Gajeel-kun, would you shut up?"

He seemed surprised at her unexpectedly rude interruption (and to be honest, she was feeling a little guilty over it, but for Mavis' sake, her skull was splitting apart), but he complied anyway, probably deducing Juvia's headache was worsening with his blabbering.

The first thing she did as her team arrived in the guild hall was ask Gajeel and Lily to report back to Mira about their mission – and bring her a small cup of water or some aspirin or whatever medicine there was, it didn't matter as long as it _stopped _the agony. After that, she sat down at a table near the entrance, since she had planned to leave soon anyway.

Minutes passed – some guild mates welcomed Juvia back and, facing her pained form slanted over the table, voiced their concerns about her health. She would thank and shrug them off because, damn, her brain was practically tearing itself in half; she'd apologize tomorrow, but for now, she had to wait.

It seemed like years until they came back with the medicine – she gladly took it, burying her head in her arms and intensely closing her eyes afterwards, hoping the pain would go away soon.

Gajeel broke the silence shortly afterwards. "Is… Is it that bad?"

"_Yes_," Juvia groaned angrily against the table. "Did you think Juvia was blowing it out of proportions? She was _not._"

"Yeah well, you always do that, so…" She heard him clear his throat. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault, don't mind Juvia. She's just irritable because of her headache." She sighed.

"Don't I know it," was his amused answer.

Minutes later, he mumbled something unintelligible and seemed to leave the table (she presumed he was going to meet Levy). Juvia, while hoping the medicine would work soon so she would be able to go home, kept trying to distract herself thinking of good things – Gray, for example. Her friends, her guild. Her bed. Wow, she really wanted to be sleeping right now.

Regardless of her methods, the pain wasn't going away, and she was just stressing herself. Hearing some ruffling beside her – or was it behind her? – she was suddenly aware that the Exceed was still there. An idea popped up amidst her aching mind.

"Lily-san, would you massage Juvia's head? It hurts a lot…" Juvia wailed, stretching her neck.

There was no response.

"Oh, please? Just a little?" she insisted, her voice muffled by the table. Lily seemed to give way at this, and soon she found her head under the cat's ministrations.

At first, she didn't think too much about it – except for the fact that Lily seemed to be extremely talented with massaging skulls. It was curious, since he was a swordsman, but _whoa_, was he gifted. She felt the pain slowly fading and sighed contently at it.

When some of it faded enough to allow her to reason properly, she found something odd.

Lily was supposed to have _paws_. Not fingers. And surely not _warm, _normal sized fingers. Could he be in his biped form? No, it was improbable; he rarely used it in daily life.

"Um… Are you Lily-san?" Juvia reluctantly asked, a little embarrassed to have mistaken the person for the Exceed. She figured he had accompanied Gajeel to wherever he went to.

At her question, the hands stopped moving – no answer was given, and as she was about to ask again, they moved more fervently, effectively shutting her up (some place in her mind told her it was exactly what Anonymous Yet Kind Person wanted, but she shoved the thought off – it felt really good, after all.)

After another couple of minutes, those fingers gradually stopped moving; by that time, her discomfort had disappeared. Raising her head (and making the hands quickly leave her skull) she stretched her neck once again. It seemed that the loud talking around was no longer affecting her.

"Thank you—" she started, turning to face the mystery person who, taking note of the position and way they moved, would be behind Juvia's back. When she found nothing besides air, she confusedly looked around – everyone in the tables surrounding her seemed to be too absorbed in their own conversations to even look at her. She frowned, leaving her seat and directing herself to Mira's bar.

"Juvia? You look troubled, are you alright?" the barmaid asked after the water mage asked for another glass of water.

Erza, in the counter, nodded at Mira's comment and added, "I saw you all slumped over the table."

"Juvia has a pretty bad headache – well, she _had._ Someone massaged her head and now it's gone… as well as the person." She sighed. "Juvia just wanted to thank them. At first, she thought it was Lily-san, but he doesn't have human fingers… or _warm_ fingers in that matter."

Mira and Erza exchanged somewhat amused looks, puzzling the water mage. Did they know something?

"Why don't you go rest?" Erza suggested before Juvia asked anything. "The headache can come back, so it's better if you sleep and recover your energy."

"Juvia was about to do that, actually," she admitted. Nodding a goodbye to their friends, she headed outside Fairy Tail, walking towards the street and tracing her path mentally. Finally, she was going to her bed. Thanking the mystery person would be left for another day. (Although she lamented not seeing her dearly loved ice mage, but oh well, it was alright – she'd probably see him tomorrow.)

Stretching her arms distractively as she distanced herself from the building, she failed to notice Gray Fullbuster's pitiful (nevertheless successful) attempt to hide himself from her as he stiffly stood beside the guild's doors while Mira and Erza failed to muffle their laughs, making him blush even harder.

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**A/N:** first of all, thanks for arianna (randomteenager) for betaing this! her fics are really amazing and potentially the best i've ever read. please check them out!

i'm happy with the outcome of this one. the idea popped up in my mind after i had a very strong headache of my own, and not surprisingly it ended up being about juvia. \sweats

thanks for reading it!


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